Hous­ton was the clear win­ner, and then some

Vote to­tals re­leased and un­der­line new leader’s dom­i­nance

Tory leader Tim Hous­ton’s dom­i­nance of the Con­ser­va­tive lead­er­ship race was un­der­stated by the point to­tals re­leased on the day he won the lead­er­ship.

e party used a point sys­tem, giv­ing each of the prov­ince’s 51 rid­ings equal weight – 100 points. Points were distributed to the ve lead­er­ship can­di­dates in pro­por­tion to their vote to­tal in each con­stituency.

at sys­tem de­liv­ered Hous­ton 2,497 rst bal­lot points, just 54shy of the 2,551 needed to win.

But by ev­ery other con­ceiv­able tally, Hous­ton won the lead­er­ship out­right on the rst bal­lot. e party re­leased the vote to­tals Tues­day.

Of the 8,947 to­tal votes cast, 4,568 – more than 51 per cent – were for Hous­ton. His clos­est ri­val was Cape Bre­ton Re­gional Mayor Ce­cil Clarke who re­ceived 2,476 votes.

Hous­ton, who rep­re­sents Pic­tou East in the leg­is­la­ture, won in 39 of the prov­ince’s 51 rid­ings, while Clarke won nine, mostly on Cape Bre­ton, but he also took the two Lunen­burg seats and Hal­i­fax Che­bucto.

Kings North MLA John Lohr won his home rid­ing and neigh­bour­ing Kings South, while El­iz­a­beth Smith-mc­crossin won only in her own rid­ing, Cum­ber­land North. Julie Chais­son did not win any rid­ings out­right and nished third in her home rid­ing of Ch­ester St. Mar­garet’s, be­hind Hous­ton and Clarke.